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38-555: The Phra Bang ( Lao : ພະບາງ , pronounced [pʰāʔ.bàːŋ] , "Royal Buddha Image in the Dispelling Fear mudra ") is a statue of Buddha in the city of Luang Prabang , Laos; it is the namesake of that city. The statue stands at 83-centimetre (33 in)s, with palms facing forward, cast using thong , an alloy of bronze, gold, and silver. According to local lore, it was cast in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka ) sometime between

76-568: A Northwestern subgrouping of Southwestern Tai owing to close affinities with Shan , Khamti and, more distantly, Thai . The immediate parent language from which Ahom is descended has been reconstructed as Proto-Tai , a language from 2000 years ago, in the Kra–Dai family (unrelated to Chinese, but possibly related to the Austronesian languages ), within the (proposed but debated) subgroup of Kam–Tai , although some say that Tai languages are

114-652: A discrete family, and are not part of Kra–Dai. Ahom is distinct from but closely related to Aiton , which is still spoken in Assam to this day. Ahom has characteristics typical of Tai languages, such as: When speaking and writing Ahom, much is dependent upon context and the audience interpretation. Multiple parts of the sentence can be left out; verb and adjectives will remain, but other parts of speech, especially pronouns, can be dropped. Verbs do not have tenses, and nouns do not have plurals. Time periods can be identified by adverbs, strings of verbs, or auxiliaries placed before

152-532: A major Ahom script was provided by Golap Chandra Barua, the same man responsible for fabricating samples of translated Ahom script. It was discovered years later, by Professor Prasert na Nagara , that the translation was unreliable. Despite these difficulties, along with the lack of native speakers and specific text, studies in Ahom have prevailed, and certain available scripts have been translated and transliterated, using known words, characters and context. In 1954, at

190-700: A meeting of Ahom people at Patsaku, Sibsagar District, the Tai Historical and Cultural Society of Assam was founded. Since the late 1960s, Ahom culture and traditions have witnessed a revival. In 1981 the Eastern Tai Literary Organization has been founded in Dhemaji, which produced language text books and publications in the Ahom script. Schools in Dibrugarh and Sibsagar districts started offering Tai language classes, teaching

228-432: A mix of Tai Ahom, Phakey, Khamti and Central Thai. The scholar Terwiel notes that the view of the Ahom language being a dead language is hotly contested by Ahom priests and spokesmen of the revival movement. According to them, the language did not die out because Ahom priests still use the language for religious purposes. Some even claim that the priestly class speaks Ahom as their mother tongue. Upon further investigation, it

266-659: A tone system, but because the Ahom script did not spell out any tones, the tones are now unknown. The Ahom language has the following pronouns: Ahom uses the proximal demonstrative nai meaning 'this' and the distal demonstrative nan meaning 'that'. Tai-Ahom mainly used an SVO word order, but an SOV word order has also been attested. Classifiers are used when forming plurals, counting entities and when specifically referring to one single entity. Some classifiers are: 'kun' (used for persons), 'tu' (used for animals) and 'an' (general). For example 'khai song tu' means two buffalo, where 'khai' means buffalo, 'song' means two and 'tu'

304-484: Is a dormant , Southwestern Tai language formerly spoken by the Ahom people . It's currently undergoing a revival and mainly used in religious and educational purposes. Ahom language was the state language of Ahom kingdom . It was relatively free of both Mon-Khmer and Indo-Aryan influences and has a written tradition dating back to the 13th century. The Ahom people established the Ahom kingdom and ruled parts of

342-620: Is a tonal language , where the pitch or tone of a word can alter its meaning, and is analytic , forming sentences through the combination of individual words without inflection. These features, common in Kra-Dai languages , also bear similarities to Sino-Tibetan languages like Chinese or Austroasiatic languages like Vietnamese . Lao's mutual intelligibility with Thai and Isan , fellow Southwestern Tai languages, allows for effective intercommunication among their speakers, despite differences in script and regional variations. In Laos, Lao

380-493: Is not only the official language but also a lingua franca , bridging the linguistic diversity of a population that speaks many other languages. Its cultural significance is reflected in Laotian literature, media, and traditional arts. The Vientiane dialect has emerged as the de facto standard, though no official standard has been established. Internationally, Lao is spoken among diaspora communities , especially in countries like

418-543: Is now southeastern China, specifically what is now Guangxi and northern Vietnam where the diversity of various Tai languages suggests an Urheimat . The Southwestern Tai languages began to diverge from the Northern and Central branches of the Tai languages, covered mainly by various Zhuang languages , sometime around 112 CE, but likely completed by the sixth century . Due to the influx of Han Chinese soldiers and settlers,

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456-526: The Brahmaputra river valley in the present day Indian state of Assam between the 13th and the 18th centuries. The language was the court language of the kingdom, until it began to be replaced by the Assamese language in the 17th century. Since the early 18th century, there have been no native speakers of the language, though extensive manuscripts in the language still exist today. The tonal system of

494-552: The Mughal Empire and other invaders. The rapid expansion resulted in the Ahom people becoming a small minority in their own kingdom, of which they kept control. During the 17th century, the Assamese language entered the Ahom court and co-existed with the Tai-Ahom for some time before finally replacing it. Eventually the Ahom peasants too adopted the Assamese language over the Ahom language for secular purposes, while Ahom

532-566: The Southwestern branch of Tai languages. Lao (including Isan) and Thai, although they occupy separate groups, are mutually intelligible and were pushed closer through contact and Khmer influence, but all Southwestern Tai languages are mutually intelligible to some degree. The Tai languages also include the languages of the Zhuang , which are split into the Northern and Central branches of

570-554: The 'Tai Ahom Yuva Chatra Sanmilan, Assam' (TAYCSA), demanded that the Tai-Ahom language be included in the school curriculum of the state of Assam. They also demanded the creation of a two-year diploma course in Mahdavdeva University. An online dictionary containing nearly 5,000 entries (see External links) has been created by analyzing old manuscripts, especially the Bar Amra. A descriptive grammar of Ahom, based on

608-591: The 1st and 9th century. However, the features of the image suggest a much later Khmer origin. The Phra Bang arrived in Lan Xang during the reign of Fa Ngum from Angkor and was used to spread Theravada Buddhism in the new kingdom. In 1359, the Khmer king gave the Phra Bang to his son-in-law, the first Lang Xang monarch Fa Ngum (1353–1373), to provide Buddhist legitimacy both to Fa Ngum's rule and by extension to

646-598: The Haw Pha Bang, on the Royal Palace grounds. Each year, on the third day of " Pi Mai ", or Lao New Year, the statue is taken in procession to Wat Mai . There, it is exhibited at a shrine, where the Buddha image is ritually bathed by devout laypeople during new year festivities. 19°53′30″N 102°08′11″E  /  19.8918°N 102.1364°E  / 19.8918; 102.1364 Lao language Lao

684-629: The Phra Bang, taking it with them to Bangkok . There, political upheaval and misfortune were attributed to the statue, and in 1782, it was returned to the Lao people . Again in 1828, the Siamese captured the Phra Bang but once more returned it in 1867, after a similar period of political upheaval. In 2013, the Phra Bang was moved from the Lao National Museum national museum in Vientiane to

722-629: The Tai languages. The Tai languages form a major division within the Kra-Dai language family , distantly related to other languages of southern China, such as the Hlai and Be languages of Hainan and the Kra and Kam-Sui languages on the Chinese Mainland and in neighbouring regions of northern Vietnam. The ancestors of the Lao people were speakers of Southwestern Tai dialects that migrated from what

760-894: The Tai migrants that followed the Mekong River . As the Southwestern Tai-speaking peoples diverged, following paths down waterways, their dialects began to diverge into the various languages today, such as the Lao-Phuthai languages that developed along the Mekong River and includes Lao and its Isan sub-variety and the Chiang Saen languages which includes the Central Thai dialect that is the basis of Standard Thai. Despite their close relationship, there were several phonological divergences that drifted

798-513: The United States, France, and Australia, reflecting its global diasporic presence. The Lao language falls within the Lao-Phuthai group of languages, including its closest relatives, Phuthai (BGN/PCGN Phouthai , RTGS Phu Thai ) and Tai Yo . Together with Northwestern Tai—which includes Shan , Ahom and most Dai languages of China, the Chiang Saen languages—which include Standard Thai, Khorat Thai, and Tai Lanna —and Southern Tai form

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836-843: The border between northern Vietnam and the Guangxi province of China, to the Hukawng Valley , along the upper reaches of the Chindwin river , northern Burma . In the 13th century, they crossed the Patkai Range . and settled in the Brahmaputra River valley, in Northeast India. After increasing their power in Upper Assam, the Ahom people extended their power to the south of the river Brahmaputra and east of

874-399: The creation of the first adequate modern dictionary by Nomal Chandra Gogoi in 1987, titled The Assamese-English-Tai Dictionary . This dictionary allowed a reader to find the translation of 9,000 Assamese words into English and Tai. This dictionary filled in missing gaps of the Ahom vocabulary with Aiton and Khamti words and if those were not available, Lanna and Thai words were used. The result

912-518: The end of the Chinese occupation of Vietnam, the fall of Jiaozhi and turbulence associated with the decline and fall of the Tang dynasty led some of the Tai peoples speaking Southwestern Tai to flee into Southeast Asia, with the small-scale migration mainly taking place between the eighth and twelfth centuries. The Tais split and followed the major river courses, with the ancestral Lao originating in

950-573: The grammar found in old manuscripts, is being worked on. A sketch has been released, titled “A Sketch of Tai Ahom” by Stephen Morey. The Tai Ahom consonants have been reconstructed as the following, by analyzing old texts: The semi-vowel /w/ is missing from the system, however it is an allophone of /b/ that occurs only in the word final position. Consonants found in the word final position are: /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ, j, b [w]/. Vowels can occur in syllable medial and final positions only. The following vowel inventory has been reconstructed: The language had

988-560: The language by following the phonology of existing sister languages, especially Tai-Aiton and Tai-Phake . The Institute of Tai Studies and Research (ITSAR), is a Tai-Ahom language teaching institute in Moran , Sivasagar , Assam , India, established in 2001 and affiliated to Dibrugarh University . It offers a one-year Tai-Ahom language diploma course and a three-month certificate course in spoken Tai-Ahom. Other initiatives have been taken, such as workshops and language classes. In 2019,

1026-415: The language is entirely lost. The language was only partially known by a small group of traditional priests of the Ahom religion , and it was being used only for ceremonial or ritualistic purposes. There has been efforts to revive the language in recent times. A reconstructed version is taught in various educational institutions in Assam by AHSEC and Dibrugarh University . Tai-Ahom is classified in

1064-1060: The languages apart with time such as the following examples:     *mlɯn 'slippery'     → {\displaystyle \rightarrow }   ມື່ນ muen /mɯ̄ːn/       → {\displaystyle \rightarrow }   ลื่น luen /lɯ̂ːn/   {} {} ມື່ນ {} ลื่น {} {} muen {} luen *mlɯn → {\displaystyle \rightarrow } /mɯ̄ːn/ → {\displaystyle \rightarrow } /lɯ̂ːn/ 'slippery' {} {} {} {}     *raːk 'to vomit'     → {\displaystyle \rightarrow }   ຮາກ hak /hâːk/       → {\displaystyle \rightarrow }   ราก rak /râːk/ Ahom language The Ahom language or Tai-Ahom language ( Ahom :𑜁𑜪𑜨 𑜄𑜩 𑜒𑜑𑜪𑜨 or 𑜁𑜨𑜉𑜫 𑜄𑜩 𑜒𑜑𑜪𑜨; khwám tái ahüm )

1102-406: The meaning of words as tones are important to distinguish the meaning of words in tonal languages. Fabricated samples of the Ahom script delayed translation of legitimate Ahom texts. Several publications were created based on the fabricated samples, leading to incorrect grammatical analysis and dictionary resources that acted as a barrier to future researchers. A later translation of Ahom Buranji ,

1140-412: The river Dikho, which corresponds to the modern day districts of Dibrugarh and Sibsagar, Assam, where the Ahom still reside today. Tai-Ahom was the exclusive court language of the Ahom kingdom , where it was used to write state-histories or ' Buranjis '. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the small Ahom community expanded their rule dramatically toward the west and they successfully saw off challenges from

1178-417: The rules of Tai grammar. It has also changed greatly regarding semantics, literally translating Assamese into Tai words, which leads to sentences which do not make sense to any Tai speaker. Terwiel therefore calls this revived language 'pseudo-Ahom'. Nevertheless, this revived language has been used passionately by revitalists and many neologisms have been created. The demand for translation into Tai-Ahom led to

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1216-559: The scholar Morey reported that Ahom priests have resorted to compounding words to differentiate between words that are homophones in the revived language, since Ahom lost its tone system. For example in old Ahom, the word su for tiger and su for shirt would have sounded differently by pronouncing them with a different tone. In revived Ahom, they are now differentiated by compounding them with another word: tu for animal and pha for cloth respectively. Subsequently, tu su and pha su can be differentiated. An effort has been made to revive

1254-404: The sovereignty of Laos. The former Lao capital of Luang Prabang , where it was kept, is named after the image. The Phra Bang has long been seen by devout Buddhists as a symbol of the right to rule Laos, as only a commendable and virtuous government deserves to be caretaker of such a sacred image. In 1705, it was taken to Vientiane . In 1778, the Siamese (now Thai ) invaded Vientiane and captured

1292-524: The verb. Ahom, like other Tai languages, uses classifiers to identify categories, and repetitions of words to express idiomatic expressions. However, the expressions, classifiers, pronouns, and other sentence particles vary between the Tai languages descended from Proto-Tai, making Tai languages mutually unintelligible. It has its own script, the Ahom script . The Ahom people and their language originated in Yunnan in south-west China . They migrated from

1330-445: The written language (and ritualistic chants) survive in a vast number of written manuscripts, Ahom is therefore usually regarded as a dead language. It retains cultural significance and is used for religious chants and to read literature. This is complicated however by the fact that the phonology with its tone system has been completely lost, because the Ahom script does not mark tone and under-specifies vowel contrasts, which obscures

1368-525: Was a hodgepodge of multiple Tai languages, that was only linked to the Ahom language by the Ahom script in which the dictionary entries were written. The scholar Terwiel recommended in 1992 to base neo-Ahom on the grammar and tones of the very closely related Aiton language, which is still spoken in Assam. Summarizing, the revivalists use a language consisting of a mixture of Tai words from multiple Tai languages, overlaid on an Assamese grammatical base. In 1999,

1406-436: Was determined that the priests could decipher the Ahom script and read the words aloud. However, because they did not know any tones, they did not have any idea of the meaning of the words except for the simplest expressions. According to Terwiel, there are great differences between the old Ahom language of the manuscripts, which is easily recognizable as a Tai language, and what the revivalists call Ahom, which does not follow

1444-545: Was restricted to religious use by Ahom priests. The everyday usage of Ahom language ceased completely by the early 19th century. Although the language is no longer spoken, the exhaustive 1795 Ahom-Assamese lexicon known as the Bar Amra preserves the lexical forms of the language towards the end of the Ahom Kingdom . The language today is used chiefly for liturgical purposes, and is no longer used in daily life. While

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